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Judy said: “One of them, a gentleman of about 40, asked me for dinner. He was about two inches high, and I didn’t want to say, ‘I can’t, because you’re a midget’.

“So I just said, ‘No, my mother wouldn’t like it’. And he said, ‘C’mon, bring yer ma, too. Two broads for the price of one’.”

The actress, who died aged 47 from an accidental drugs overdose in 1969, added: “There were hundreds of them, they put them all in one hotel. They got smashed every night and the police would pick them up in butterfly nets. The poor things.”

That was the Culver Hotel in Hollywood, and it became the epicentre of the dwarves’ drunken debauchery for the eight weeks they stayed there during filming.

The police were regularly called and, as well as butterfly nets, they had to find new ways of apprehending the revellers.

Three of the Munchkins in The Wizard Of Oz (Image: Rex Features)

Pink Panther star David Niven happened to walk past the hotel during one furore.

Chris Price and Joe Harland write in their book Live Fast Die Young: “He asked one of the attending officers as to the nature of the incident, to be told several Munchkins had been drunk and disorderly and were currently resisting arrest.

“With hands too small for cuffs and no restraints of a suitable size, the hotel laundry had been called on to help. Niven watched as nine policemen emerged from the foyer, each holding a wriggling, writhing and rather heavy pillowcase.”

And the partying didn’t stop for work. One Munchkin, known as The Count, was nearly fired for his antics during filming.

One crew member recalled: “Once, when he was due on set, he went missing. Then we heard a whining sound coming from the men’s room.

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“He had got plastered during lunch, fallen in the toilet bowl and could not get out.”

The good times weren’t restricted to boozing either.

The Culver was transformed into “an unholy assembly of pimps, hookers and gamblers”, according to one observer.

Though it hosted celebrities, the hotel had never seen anything like it and had to install police on every floor.

Already sleeping three in a bed, the dwarves had orgies every night – not only hiring prostitutes but also acting as pimps for them. Some female Munchkins were said to have tried selling themselves to male crew members during the filming.

The Munchkins were sex-mad hellraisers (Image: Rex Features)

The movie’s screenwriter Noel Langley remembered how the Munchkins would often go in search of women on set.

“They’d raid the studio lot,” he said. “The showgirls had to be escorted in bunches with armed guards.”

The roughest dwarves were said to be prone to violence, carrying knives. One allegedly came on set armed with two loaded pistols to threaten a fellow Munchkin for making eyes at his wife.

Wizard of Oz make-up artist Jack Dawn said: “You had to watch them all the time.”

The Munchkins riotous hotel antics were even portrayed in 1981 comedy Under the Rainbow, about Wizard of Oz auditions.

But although they performed upbeat numbers such as Follow the Yellow Brick Road and Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead!, many had experienced real hardship.

One of the scenes from The Wizard of Oz (Image: Rex Features)

Those from the US had only just survived the Great Depression, forced to perform in vaudeville comedy acts or as carnival freaks.

Others had come from Europe, including one troupe that managed to flee Nazi persecution thanks to the film role.

Jerry Maren, 97, is the last surviving Munchkin. He enjoyed one of the biggest parts in the Wizard of Oz, as part of the trio of young Lollipop Guild Munchkins who welcomed Dorothy to Munchkinland.

He played down his co-stars’ riotous reputation, claiming there were a few bad apples.

“There were a couple of kids from Germany who liked to drink beer,” said Jerry. “They drank beer morning, noon and night, and got in a little trouble.”

But the actor, who lives in San Diego, said it was difficult not to get carried away with excitement, as working in Hollywood was such a buzz for them.

“Making the film was the greatest fun I ever had in my life. I’d never met any little people. I was the only small person in my family,” he said.

A number of actors who played the original Munchkins in the 1938 movie classic The Wizard of Oz (Image: Getty)

“My father worked in a hotel and earned about $5 a week. I got paid $50 a week.”

Jerry appreciated his wage, but it was still galling to learn they were the lowest paid of the cast. Even Dorothy’s dog, Toto, was paid $125 a week.

The actors claimed they were being ripped off by manager Leo Von Singer, brought in by MGM as he already had a troupe of performing dwarves and knew he could find more.

The studio reportedly paid him $100 for every Munchkin he brought in, but he took a 50% cut and treated them with disdain.

Small wonder many were angry, and felt they had little to lose. Jerry said: “He was a son of a bitch. He was a cheap b*****d. He stole all their money.” Jerry was one of the lucky ones.

The main cast of the classic film The Wizard of Oz (Image: Reuters)

Fellow Munchkin Hazel Derthick Resmondo said: “I only got five dollars a day. There wasn’t any union or guild or anything for us then.

"When I complained, Singer said, ‘If you don’t like your job, you can go home’.” But the Munchkin cast finally gained some long-overdue recognition 10 years ago.

With a petition supported by director Steven Spielberg and actor Mickey Rooney, they received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Some of the original cast, along with Judy’s son Joey Luft, attended the unveiling.

And despite the chaos, Jerry insisted most of the dwarves enjoyed a great relationship with Judy. She even presented each of the 124 actors with a signed photo and box of chocolates after their last shoot.

Jerry said: “She was a movie star and I’d figured she’d be a pain in the neck. But she was glad to meet us and we were glad to meet her. She was an angel.”